


American Suburbia

by marimari004



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Hunk & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, M/M, Middle School, Minor Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Slow Burn, Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 21:25:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15693678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marimari004/pseuds/marimari004
Summary: It probably wasn't Lance's best idea to not make a single friend in his science class. So when the teacher tells his to pair up with someone for a group project, he kind of figures that he's doomed. That is, until he meets a kid that he barely knew existed.Now, he's all Lance can think about. And Lance hopes he really doesn't screw it up.





	American Suburbia

It probably wasn’t Lance’s best idea to not bother with making any friends in his eight-grade science class, but he had Hunk and he figured that’s all he needed. That is, until the teacher said that they were going to do a group project on the scientific method and Lance realized that Hunk was definitely not in this class and he really didn’t know anyone else.

  
So, yeah. Lance was kind of panicking. But only slightly. He had friends. How hard could it be for him to find a partner?

  
And that’s how he found himself scrambling around the class, begging anyone who he even slightly knew to let them in their group. 

“Hey, Blake. I was wondering if you needed a partner?”

“Nope, sorry. I’m already with McKenna.”

  
“What about you, Jessica?”

  
“No. Me and Kelsey are already a group.”“Drake?”

  
“Sorry, man.”

  
And on and on it went. Lance asking everyone he knew and them all turning him down. So, at that point, Lance just wanted to throw his hands in the air and give up. And it wasn’t like he was a complete loser, either. He had friends, there’s no reason that this should be happening to him of all people. But here he was, standing alone in a room without a single partner. He kind of wanted to shrink into nothing in hopes that he can escape the embarrassment of the fact that nobody actually wanted to be paired with him.

  
After five, torturous minutes, the teacher stood up.

  
“Does everyone have another person to work with?” Like she didn’t know the answer to that. Lance _knew_ that she was watching him scrabble around the room like a chicken with no head.

  
No, Lance didn’t, but he didn’t want to just scream it out _Hey, no one loves me enough to leave their partner in order to save me the embarrassment of being partnerless._ Nope, that wasn’t exactly Lance’s style. He just figured that she would just put him in an already formed group and that they would be thanking him, because, after all, three heads are better than two.

  
“Lance?” She turned to him.

  
“Yes?”

  
“Do you have someone to work with?” She asked. He knew it. He knew she was just waiting to call him out in front of the entire class. Whatever, he could deal with it.

  
After a couple seconds of mentally preparing himself, he replied. “No.”

  
“Okay. It looks like Keith doesn’t have a partner, either. Do you mind pairing up?”

  
Keith. Who was Keith? It wasn’t like Lance bothered to learn half of the names of the people in the class. Actually, that’s probably part of the reason that he didn’t have a partner. But it didn’t seem like a problem up until that point.

  
So, Lance looked around and found the only kid sitting alone, staring at his desk. He looked about as excited as Lance felt.

  
“Sure,” Lance replied. Because he wasn’t exactly in the position of saying no.

  
The presence of Keith never really registered for Lance up until that point. Yeah, he theoretically knew that he existed, but if he was asked to identify him at any point outside of school, there would be no way that he would be able to. The only things he really knew was that he was quite and that was about it and Lance didn’t exactly want to sit in silence during the entire project. That would actually be the death of him. But, again, there wasn’t another option, so Lance took a deep breath and sat down in the empty chair next to Keith.

  
“Hey, looks like we’re partners,” Lance flashed Keith a smile, hoping that the kid would warm up, or, at the very least, actually look at him, but Keith just stared at his desk like it was the most fascinating thing to ever cross his path.

  
“So, do you have any ideas?” Lance continued, his facade of excitement kind of dwindling after the cold reception.

  
“Not really,” Keith replied, shrugging.

  
“Oh,” was all Lance could say back. They sat in silence for a moment, listening to the other groups brainstorming around them. They all seemed to have at least be coming up with something, though some ideas were a bit more outlandish than others.

  
Lance felt as though he could physically feel time passing by. All the while, he was racking his brain with ideas of what to do. Maybe something with swimming? A girl on the swim team always did her projects on something with that. Or maybe the could do the good old fish listening to music project. Or seeing what foods grew which kinds of mold. Or if-

  
“Do you know about plasma?” Keith asked, cutting Lance off mid-brainstorm. Lance almost didn’t hear him; he spoke so softly, almost like he was scared to.

  
“Like, the four state of matter kind of plasma?” Lance replied.

  
“That. I made it in a microwave once with my older brother with grapes. We could do something like that. Maybe change the microwave wattage and see what lasts the longest?” Lance had to process that for a minute. Did this kid actually have an idea that wasn’t half bad? It was pure genius, actually, compared to some of the ideas being thrown out around the room.

  
“You know, that could work. Plus, plasma. That makes us seem super smart,” Lance said.

  
“Yeah, from what I remember, you cut grapes in half, but leave a little bit of skin, and you put it on a napkin. Oh, you have to put a glass over it or something, and leave this little gap with the napkin or I guess it’ll explode. I think I’m forgetting something, but I bet I could ask Shiro. He would remember,” Keith finally finished and all Lance could do was stare. He had no idea where all those words came from, but here he was, just going off about plasma grapes. Keith noticed Lance staring and looked back down at his desk, he face flushed.

  
“Sorry. Was that too much?” Keith asked and Lance was take aback.

  
“No, no. It was a good idea. You’re probably going to have to explain it again because I didn’t get most of it, but it’s a start. A lot better than what I was thinking,” Lance said, wanting to make Keith feel better.

  
“Oh, okay,” Keith replied. 

  
“When is this due by? I kind of spaced it,” Lance said. Keith looked up at the board, and, of course, the due date was written in big, green letters on the whiteboard at the front of class, which made Lance look even more like an idiot.

  
“Says there that it’s due by next Wednesday,” Keith said. Lance wasn’t almost surprised that he didn’t make fun of him for that. Lance definitely would have teased Keith if the roles were reversed. Maybe Keith was just a nicer person or something.

  
“Does this weekend work? I have a swim meet Saturday morning, but it should be done at around one. Do you want to meet up sometime after then?” Lance asked. Keith nodded, extremely enthusiastically, Lance might add.

  
“Yeah, any time really works for me,” Keith said.

  
“Great! I’ll bring grapes,” Lance said, feeling his face break out into a grin. “My mom will be all over that. She always tells me that I should eat healthier. I just won’t tell her what they’re for.”

  
“You know, there’ll probably be extra grapes,” Keith said.

  
“It’s all good. You can keep them. I’m doing my own scientific experiment to see how long my body can survive solely on Hot Cheetos and soda.”

  
“You’re going to die by the time you’re twenty,” Keith replied.

  
“Or, I’m going to unlock the key to immortality,” Lance said.

  
“Somehow, I highly doubt that,” Keith said, but with a little smile in his voice. Lance felt something within himself, something breaking out with happiness. Here he was, making this kid he barely knew happy. It almost felt weird. He hasn’t exactly branched out from the friends that he made, because, again, he never felt like he needed to, so he forget how nice it felt to just connect with someone that he just met with all the underlying awkwardness gone and just talking to someone without knowing everything about them.

  
And it was almost strange that he felt slightly disappointed when the teacher informed them that the bell was going to be ringing in a two minutes and to get their stuff together. It was strange that Lance was disappointed to leave this kid that he only just meant and it was even more strange that, when he left, he couldn’t help but feel so, so excited for Saturday.

 

* * *

 

 

The next time in class was extremely surreal for no other reason than Lance was actually looking forward to something in it and he was anxious when the teacher was talking instead of just incredibly bored. And maybe it was the fact that he had Keith to talk to. Actually, it was defiantly the fact that he had Keith to talk to. And Lance had no idea why. Maybe it was the fact that Keith was kind of an enigma or maybe it was the fact that it wasn’t Hunk. And don’t get Lance wrong, he loved Hunk like a brother, but it was something new and different and maybe Lance wanted something like that in his life. Because, honestly, it’s just been the same old song since he first started going to school here. So, yeah, he was kind of excited to talk to Keith, again.

The teacher rambled on about waves and sound and light for about thirty minutes and Lance actually wanted to either kill her or himself, but before he could do either of those things, he was saved by her announcing that it was time to break off into their partners and discuss their project. And it was probably a good thing too, because Lance and Keith never exactly planned out where they were going to have this or exactly what time they were meeting or really anything besides Lance was getting the grapes. 

So Lance went back to that vacant seat next to Keith and turned to him. 

“You know, we never actually decided at whose house we were having this, or like a time, or really anything,” Lance said. Keith nodded. 

“I kind of forgot about that, too. I just kind of figured my house because we have an old microwave and I’ll probably need Shiro to walk me through it, but I guess you don’t know where I live,” Keith said. Lance was surprised about how much this kid could actually talk when it was drawn out of him.

  
Like, yesterday, Lance never even really knew that he existed, but here this kid was, talking animatedly about plasma of all things. And Lance thought that it was endearing or something like that and it made him want to talk to Keith more and more. And he really couldn’t figure out exactly what was making him feel this way, because they only talked twice, but it was like something just clicked, and it was addicting.

  
So, Lance paid so much attention to Keith when he drew a crude map from the school to his house. And when Keith gave him his cell phone number and Lance couldn’t wait to add it to his phone as soon as the school bell rang to dismiss classes for the day. And he couldn’t wait for tomorrow, when he was suppose to show up on Keith’s doorstep and they wouldn’t have a time limit on how long they could hang out because it wasn’t like there was a school bell in Keith’s house.

  
And when the teacher said that it was time for everyone to finish up what they were doing and head back to their seats because the bell was going to ring soon, Lance found himself almost disappointed. He was happy just listening to Keith explain in great detail every little thing that Lance needed to know on how to get to his house.

  
Lance was so excited for Saturday. More excited than he was for any other thing in his life at the moment. Which was new, because he usually had a lot to be excited about. Like the swim meet, where he was going to see his friends from the other team and he hasn’t really been able to talk to the in forever. Or the fact that today was Friday and his older brother was going to pick him up and he was going to see his girlfriend and she always brought him treats from her work. And usually, that would be enough to Lance, but, this weekend, it wasn’t. Because all those things were overshadowed by the fact that he was going to see Keith at 3 pm tomorrow and that made him so excited. And Lance still couldn’t exactly figure out why.

  
Lance sat through another two excruciating hours of class before the final bell rang, which was his cue to shove his binder into his backpack and race out of the classroom, ignoring whatever the teacher was saying. He didn’t really care, because Marco was coming to pick him up like he did every Friday and Marco’s girlfriend was going to be there with a fresh, gooey chocolate-chip cookie from her work and that’s what kept Lance going through all five days of school. Not only that, but Lance got Marco’s undivided attention for the ten minute drive from school and he could tell him what was going on and he knew that Marco was listening to every word, which was something his mom didn’t do. He knew she was busy, but still. It was nice to have someone’s undivided attention for even a short amount of time. 

But this Friday, there was something else. Lance was going to ask Marco about why he was feeling some type of way about some kid that he barely knew. And if Marco could put a name to the feeling that was slowing melting his insides and driving him insane.

  
And that’s how Lance found himself rushing through the halls at a speed that he never even attempted before. Because, usually, he had to wait for Hunk to find him at the front, by bench by the buses and then they would have to wait for Hunk’s mom to come and honestly, there was no point in rushing because she was always a couple minutes late anyways. Even on Fridays, Lance maybe picked up his pace, but defiantly still kept it under control because he was going to see Marco either way and he was going to spend the same amount of time with him if he rushed it or took his sweet time. But not today, because Lance had a question, and that question was taking up so much room in his brain.

  
He was slightly out of breath when he finally spotted Marco’s bright yellow car on the edge of the parking lot and Lance all but sprinted towards the things, something his lungs definitely protested, but whatever.

  
He saw Marco and his girlfriend grinning and laughing in the front, and as soon as he opened the door, he heard Marco say, “What’s got you in a rush, today?” And Lance found that he suddenly clammed up. Because he didn’t want to seem too forward or anything and Marco to think that he was too overly excited. Which, of course, now that he was actually presented with the situation, he decided to clam up? Yeah, sounds like him. So he just shrugged his shoulders and climbed inside.

“Guess I’m just extra excited for the weekend,” Lance replied. Marco laughed at that one.

  
“You must be extremely excited because I’ve never seen you run like that, kid. Figured you didn’t know how,” Marco said. Lance huffed and crossed his arms. 

“I do know how to run,” he shot back. 

“Sure you do.” Lance couldn’t get too mad though, because he heard the smile in Marco’s voice and knew he was teasing and he didn’t want to ruin the car ride anyways, so he decided to drop it like the hero he was. 

And Lance thought that Marco could tell, because he started to ask Lance how his day was going and Lance saw that this was the perfect opportunity to bring up the whole Keith thing.  
  


"Today was a good day, I guess. I have the stupid group project for science, but there’s this kid that I’m working with who’s really nice.” Marco smiled at that one. 

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. They’re smart and I’m going over to their house and I’m so excited,” Lance spilled out. Marco and his girlfriend exchanged on of those glances that only couples really gave and they drove Lance crazy.

“Sounds like someone has a crush,” Marco teased. Lance instantly went red. Because Lance defiantly did not have a crush. And he said just as much.  
  


"No, it’s not a crush. He’s a boy anyways,” Lance replied. Marco smiled again. 

“You’re thirteen, kid. Thirteen’s all about figuring out your sexuality,” he said. But Lance ignored him because whatever was going on certainly wasn’t a crush and there was nothing that Marco could say that would convince him otherwise. Besides, what did Marco know? That was the thing about adults. They would act they like knew the answers to questions that Lance didn’t even think of asking, yet. And Lance hated it when they did that. 

Lance sat in silence the rest of the way home and tried to focus on what the two were saying, but his mind kept wandering. He kept thinking about going home and putting Keith’s number in his phone and he kept wondering if he should text Keith first or if he should wait. Then, he remembered that Keith didn’t have his number, yet, so of course he had to text him first. Which raised the question of should text him right off the bat or would that come across as too eager? No, because Keith wanted Lance to text him. So, it was decided that he would text Keith once he got home and pray that it didn’t make him look like a loser. 

He felt himself almost vibrating in the backseat of Marco’s car as the minutes seemed to drag by. Marco’s girlfriend handed Lance a cookie, but he found that he couldn’t really eat it, just taking off little nibbles at a time. If anyone thought it was strange, the didn’t say anything. Maybe they just were having too much fun watching Lance stew in his wait. That did sound like something that they would do. 

When Lance’s driveway came into view, he felt his heart speed up and dread settle in his stomach. Why was he so anxious about a text? He sent hundreds, if not thousands of these things in his life, but this one made him feel all sorts of things. And he wasn’t sure that he liked it. 

So, when the car stopped, he tried to act as casual as possible because Marco and his girlfriend were already acting so smug about Lance’s situation and he couldn’t stand to give them any more satisfaction, so he calmly walked inside, found his phone that was sitting on the coffee table right next to the door, where he left it that morning, and walked to his room. 

As soon as he knew that he was alone, he rummaged through his backpack, trying to find his science notebook that he slipped the number in. Once he did, he put the number in his phone and started writing out a text. 

He decided on going straight to the point. 

_Hey, this is Lance_  
_I was wondering if we were still good for tomorrow???_

Yep, that’ll have to do. 

He started at his phone for what felt like an eternity, but what really must have been five minutes before giving up. It was Friday after all. Keith probably had things to do and didn’t have time to devote to that kid in science that he talked to twice. He probably wasn’t as much of an overeager freak like Lance. So he decided to go and see if his mom needed help with dinner or something to try and take his mind off of it. 

And it kind of worked. It was two hours before Lance received a reply. In that time, he managed to go about an average of ten minutes without desperately checking his phone to see if Keith sent him a message and every time his phone made a noise, his hopes would go up, just to see that it was Hunk or something sending Lance something that he found online. 

Lance loved Hunk so much, he really did, but he could strangle the kid for raising his hopes like that only to crush them. Really, it was kind of cruel. 

And when it really was Keith, Lance felt his spirts soar. 

_Hi, Lance!!_  
_Sorry it took forever._  
_My brother is home for the weekend and I’ve just been spending time with him._  
_Yeah, tomorrow works great._  
_My mom said Shiro has to help us_  
_Hope that’s okay??_

Lance was a little bit disappointed that Keith’s older brother was going to be there to help them. He was perfectly old enough to know what he was doing. And then he remember that they were making plasma and neither of them exactly knew what they were doing, so maybe it wasn’t a bad idea. 

_Sounds like a plan!!_  
_See you then!! :P_

And for the first time in his life, Lance was excited to do something that related to school. Just so long as it involved Keith.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, I guess this is my official induction into the Voltron fandom? Anyways, this fic is pretty much my stress outlet for my first year of college. 
> 
> Updates will come periodically as I find time to write. 
> 
> If you have any suggestions, feel free to leave a comment!!


End file.
